Small Tool Chest

[Paul Jones]

This is my oldest and first tool chest that I built when I was fourteen. It is still in use after more than fifty years. The tool chest sides and drawers were made from ¼” plywood paneling with “v-groves” milled into the good side (really retro wall paneling nowadays). In fact the drawer front on the lower left side shows one of these “v-groves” and is used as a false front for an extra deep drawer. The plywood was left over from paneling an enclosed and winterized porch that had been a screened-in porch. My parents let me set up a small table/workbench in the corner of the enclosed porch if I would keep the area clean and neat most of the time– that is why I built the tool chest. The plywood was cut using one of those 5 ½” circular saw adaptations to power drills that were popular in the early 1960’s. The saw used a corded ¼” Black and Decker drill I purchased with several books of S&H Green Stamps (now we are getting very retro again). I made straight saw cuts by clamping a guide board to the plywood. Many of the drawers have dividers made from clear boxwood that allow separately storing needle files, pliers, and small tools but my favorite drawers were the two I used for holding dies and holding taps. The drilled wood tap holder was held in place by a single flat head screw which allowed it to be removed and modified as my tap collection expanded. The bottom drawer on the right is devoted to storing my bottoming taps but not very convenient as compared to easy to view tap drawer. The overall size is 18”Lx14”Hx7”D.